More than 130 men and women recently joined in honoring Investors Bank and its management at the Springfield B’nai B’rith lodge’s 57th annual dinner-dance at Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael, Springfield, for the bank’s dedication to the communities it serves.

Kevin Cummings, the bank’s president and chief executive officer accepted the lodge’s prestigious B’nai B’rith International Citizenship and Civics Award. The presentation was made by Joseph Tenenbaum, the president of the lodge that covers all of Union County and beyond and is one of the largest B’nai B’rith lodges in the United States...more.

B’nai B’rith International applauds the House of Representatives for passing the bipartisan Nuclear Iran Prevention Act on July 31 by an overwhelming majority. By reducing Iran’s oil exports and further shackling its economy, the bill would send an important signal to new Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani about the cost of continuing the country’s unswerving pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The legislation seeks to decrease Iranian oil exports from 1.25 million barrels per year to 250,000 barrels by the end of 2014. It would also expand the blacklist of Iran’s various economic sectors and further limit the country’s access to overseas foreign currency reserves. Sanctions against Iran have already drastically limited the country’s oil exports and severely hampered its economy...more.

For starters, when, in 2010, first lady Michelle Obama, along with her daughters Malia and Sasha; her mother, Marian Robinson; and a Secret Service entourage stopped in for lunch at Pink’s to have a chili dog, she and the rest of the minions who eat there probably had no idea that the famous hot dog stand near the corner of La Brea and Melrose avenues was started by a Jewish couple — Paul and Betty Pink.

Also little known is that Southern California Jews have contributed entire menus to the national bill of fare... In 1939, Betty Pink saw an ad in the Citizen News for a hot dog cart. “My father borrowed $50 from his mother-in-law,” Richard Pink said. “They leased a space [near the corner of La Brea and Melrose] for $15. When my mother picked up the cart, it was on La Cienega, and she rolled it right to La Brea.”

For the dogs, Paul went to a family he’d met through B’nai B’rith, the Hoffman brothers, of Hoffman Bros. Packing, who created the Hoffy hot dog, the brand Pink’s sells to this day...more.